A New Model for Predicting Slug Flow Liquid Holdup in Vertical Pipes with Different Viscosities
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RESEARCH ARTICLE - PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
A New Model for Predicting Slug Flow Liquid Holdup in Vertical Pipes with Different Viscosities Zilong Liu1,2 · Ruiquan Liao1,2 · Wei Luo1,2 · Yubin Su3 · Joseph X. F. Ribeiro1,2 Received: 11 January 2019 / Accepted: 23 December 2019 © King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 2020
Abstract The development of heavy oil has attracted attention in recent times. With increasing fluid viscosity, slug flow has become the most common flow pattern in oil and gas pipeline flow. The accurate prediction of slug flow parameters is an urgent problem to be solved in heavy oil development. In this paper, gas–liquid two-phase flow experiments with different viscosities were carried out in a 60-mm vertical pipe. The superficial velocity ranges of gas and liquid were 0.51–7.42 m/s and 0.08–0.21 m/s, respectively. Based on the measured data, the investigation revealed that liquid holdup increases with an increase in viscosity and superficial liquid velocity. This study presents a new liquid holdup model of slug flow for viscous two-phase flow in vertical pipes. Based on the statistical analysis, the proposed correlation accurately predicts the liquid holdup of slug flow in a vertical pipe for the present measured data and performs best in comparison with existing correlations. Keywords Vertical pipe · Viscosity · Liquid holdup · Slug flow
1 Introduction Heavy oil, super heavy oil, and asphaltene account for approximately 70% of the world’s total petroleum resources [1]. With the increase in world energy demand and the decrease in conventional oil reserves, the development of heavy oil has attracted increasing attention. However, high viscosity poses great challenges for the production and transportation of heavy oil. In addition, gas and water will inevitably be present concurrently with the oil in the pipeline flow process, making the gas–liquid two-phase flow behavior more complex and difficult to predict. With an increase * Ruiquan Liao [email protected] Zilong Liu [email protected] 1
Petroleum Engineering College, Yangtze University, Wuhan Campus, No. 111, Caidian Street, Caidian District, Wuhan 430100, Hubei Province, China
2
The Multiphase Flow Laboratory of Gas Lift Innovation Centre, CNPC, Wuhan Campus, No. 111, Caidian Street, Caidian District, Wuhan 430100, Hubei Province, China
3
Oil and Gas Technology Research Institute, Changqing Oilfield Branch Company, PetroChina, Xi’an 710021, Shanxi, China
in fluid viscosity, slug flow has become the most common flow pattern in oil and gas pipeline flow [2]. The accurate prediction of slug flow parameters is an urgent problem to be solved in heavy oil development. Liquid holdup is an important parameter for predicting the pressure gradient of gas–liquid two-phase flow. The slippage of gas–liquid two-phase flow has become more serious because of the high viscosity. Gokcal [3] and Sarica [4] studied the liquid holdup of slug flow with high viscosity (180–587 mPa s) and medium viscosity (40–160 mPa s). Nadler [5] invest
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